The Tour de France leaves the French Coast next Saturday with uncompromising peaks, plains and coronavirus protocols between the 176 runners and the last sprint of the Champs-Elyses in Paris.
Delayed for more than two months due to the virus, political and organizational will saw the Tour hanged as the Tokyo Olympics and football euros plummeted.
A plan for the coronavirus era game may emerge when global audiences in 190 countries can dine on France’s prettiest prospects in the grueling three-week staying power test.
Race leader Christian Prudhomme likes to say that the Tour de France is 3,000 km of smiles (3,470 km for 2020), but asked the 10 million enthusiasts who were expected along the way to hide this year.
Following marathon negotiations with political leaders, the ASO, which is organizing the race, announced in a meticulous 18-page consultative protocol that two positive instances of COVID-19 on any team will get rid of the occasion.
All riders must undergo two nasal PCR tests in the days prior to the start of the Tour.
In addition, the Tour has established a COVID-19 control unit of approximately 15 more people to be attached to the coordination center.
The Mediterranean city of Nice hosts the meeting known as “The Grand Départ” and the first 3 stages begin or end there.
23-year-old defending Colombian champion Egan Bernal will be his name as the sole captain of Ineos, who ruthlessly eliminated four-time winner Chris Froome and 2018 champion Geraint Thomas from his team last week.
“The important thing is that we were for the victory of the Tour,” Bernal said.
Equipment owner Jim Ratcliffe, who also owns the Nice club, has renamed the cycling team “Ineos Grenadiers” to announce the company’s new all-wheel drive off-road vehicle.
First, the Israel Start-Up Nation team will be among the 22 groups at the start line on Saturday.
The Tour will also feature two podiums to welcome the winners every day – from now on you will be a woman and a man.
Ineos is directed by Dave Brailsford, who has orchestrated seven victories in the last 8 editions, with Briton Bradley Wiggins in 2012.
Brailsford is a wonderful philosopher who brought the concepts of “marginal gains” and “mission clarity” into cycling racing.
“There are many awards to offer in the Tour de France, our purpose is the yellow jersey,” Brailsford said of the overall victory his team pursues if, if the virus, the 2020 edition arrives in Paris.
Brailsford provided flexible player Bernal with the platform for good fortune while stripping his initial lineup of the two top marketable stars in the cycling world.
The emerging Dutch team Jumbo-Visma, which has two of the top runners in the pack, is blocking Bernal and Brailsford.
Jumbo will be led by former ski jumper and Vuelta a Spanish champion Primoz Roglic.
The Slovenian enjoys a maximum acceleration response above 500m, but can be thrown into uncertainty when in isolation.
Jumbo will also face former Giro d’Italia champion and world champion Tom Dumoulin, a former road expert medical student who is likely to reach 21 days at once.
The direction itself resembles the thrilling direction of 2019, crossing the French mountain ranges.
There will be five summit finals and 29 classified mountain ascents, motorhomes and emerging villages stretching on either side of those summit finals will be reduced through fitness protocols this year.
With the two-month delay, the French plains will likely be whipped by the autumn winds, especially on tracks along the coast like Stage 10 between the Atlantic islands of Oléron and Ré.
However, the suspense will build throughout the day as the penultimate day features an imaginable shakeup with an individual time trial on the favorite climb of the Planches des Belles Filles enthusiasts.
Without a French winner since 1985, the FDJ team’s Thibaut Pinot is the hope at home, growing up near the Planche des Belles Filles.
“I’ve got my legs for that, ” he said this week.
On a Tour de France like no other, it will be a victory in itself, whether Bernal, Dumoulin or whoever wears the yellow jersey in Paris on September 20.
There was a total freeze on out-of-competition drug screening for the pandemic, so it will be attractive to see which “training program” of the groups was most effective.
There has been a complete freeze on out-of-competition drug testing for the pandemic, so it will be attractive to see which “training program” of teams has been most effective.
Before Ineos left him for the ToT, Geraint Thomas left the Dauphine saying he still needed to lose weight, so the Ineos program doesn’t seem to be going very well.
There have been many adjustments to the workforce this year, and a hilly ride with little trial time means anything can happen. I can’t wait to be there anyway.
Always surprised by Thomas’ omission, but Brailsford’s cruelty never failed. Brailsford was bitten once before while unwavering with the British Cavaliers and was never given that lesson.
This Tour will be attractive for two reasons. To find out if Bernal is the new messiah, and a genuine check to see if Brailsford can still win it without his British team system.
After seeing the Dauphine, I think Jumbo Visma is “in the sauce”, but that’s just my opinion.
TigersArray . . . Jumbo is the old Rabobank teamArray. Menshov, Rasmussen and Levi LeipheimerArray . . etc. There is no scandal thereArray . . 🙂
Maybe Thomas BlankArray . . I don’t think so yet Array . .
It will be loose for everyone this year. It will be a laugh to watch.